18th Century Mandolins Were a Symphony of Rare Ingredients

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The secret behind the gorgeous color and decoration of rare 18th
century mandolins has been revealed.

The ornate mandolins, built during a musical golden age in
Naples, Italy, were primarily covered with shellac, a common
finish that gives off a rich red hue. But each house of master
craftsmen made its own unique mix with a few rare ingredients,
including lava from Mount
Vesuvius, according to a new study.

“For mandolins of unknown origin, our results could represent a
new way to identify where they were made and therefore their
historic and economic value,” study author Tommaso Rovetta, a
researcher at the Università degli Studi di Pavia in Italy,
said in a statement.

Musical heyday

In the 1700s, Naples was home to several musical
innovations, from the flamboyant productions at its opera
house to a distinctive "Neapolitan style" in instrumental music
that spread across Europe, influencing the works of Mozart,
Rossini and others, the researchers wrote in the paper.

Though Antonio
Stradivari's coveted violins may fetch more money at auction,
the Naples mandolin may have played a more instrumental role in
the period's musical revolution. The deep-bowled mandolins, which
produce more resonance than flat-backed American versions, first
gained popularity in the 1700s. Musicians such as Beethoven and
Paganini composed pieces specifically for the instrument.

The Vinaccia family, a dynasty of master craftsmen that still
makes guitars and violins today, first built the deep-bowled
mandolin in the 1700s, and other families of luthiers, or makers
of stringed instruments, followed suit. The most ornate of these
instruments were painted with geometric designs and inlaid with
bone, ivory or pearl.

For years, the materials and techniques used to make the stunning
decoration was a closely guarded secret.

“We assume there were intense exchanges of technical know-how
between masters and their apprentices, but, with no written
records, this knowledge was taken to the grave,” Rovetta said.

Common ingredients

But Rovetta and his colleagues at the Laboratorio Arvedi Research
Group got permission to take a closer look at 10 mandolins: one
from a private collector and nine from the National Museum of
Musical Instruments in Rome. All of the instruments were made
between 1765 and 1799, and came from one of the four master
luthier families of the time.

The team used light and scanning electron microscopy to analyze
tiny samples of the resins on the
musical instruments.

It turned out that shellac, a widely used, shimmery transluscent
red finish made from the exoskeleton of the lac beetle, formed
the base resin for all the mandolins. A unique mix of other
ingredients, such as pigments and inorganic materials, were then
added in, the researchers wrote in the paper.